The Aadhaar project, to provide a unique number to all residents in India, was packaged as a welfare-enabling programme. It was sold as an initiative for greater inclusiveness in welfare, a tool against corruption, greater efficiency and so on.

Six years down the line, the evidence shows the destruction of welfare programmes due to their Aadhaar linkage. The Aadhaar project also has a sinister side to it -- it is a surveillance-enabling programme, which threatens privacy and democratic practice. Indians residents and citizens have been lulled into believing that privacy is the price they have to pay for better implementation of welfare programmes. In fact, Aadhaar project threatens both our welfare, and right to privacy. The Aadhaar project with its fundamental weaknesses and dangerous effects continues to grow.